And up the long flight of eastern stairs there come,
emerging suddenly into this world of sunlit splendour,
growing girls with trays of pink balsams, heaped high
upon their heads ; and aged men in black and purple
tartans, with white muslin fillets bound about their
brows. To these last the long ascent is a work of real
merit, for they are nearing the limits of life.
All here is gracious and beautiful; such a harmony
of genuine piety and exterior beauty, as makes one’s
heart glad. There is no set worship, no shutting up
within doors ; neither gloom nor affectation. The men,
the women, and the little children are genuinely happy
in their devotions, and they worship here under the blue
sky and in the golden sunlight, nearer in this than the
rest of the praying world to heaven. In other lands
where the fibre is strong and prone to excess, they
would convert it all into priestcraft, or some mere
secular cult of the beautiful; into some gloomy mystery
or indecorous amusement. Here the simplicity, the
natural piety, some gentle quality of equilibrium in
the: blood of this people, combined with an instinct
that is profoundly artistic, enable them to effect a great
. compromise.
From the lofty platform of the pagoda, raised far
above the neighbouring country, there expands one of
those views which are the glory of Burma. The central
chord of all is the great river, flowing in copper-coloured
shade and silver light below the western bulwark of
hills. Northwards it spreads out into a wide lake with
the blush of evening on it, and beyond it, the soft green